Jurgen Van den Broeck, who crashed yesterday in the second stage of Tirreno-Adriatico and was forced to leave the race, visited doctor Toon Claes in Herentals today.

Team doctor Jan Mathieu: “Yesterday it was obvious very soon that Jurgen would be forced to leave the race. The horizontal deep cut and six stitches at the inside of the right knee made it impossible to continue. Despite the fact that he had a difficult night the swelling and pain weren’t too bad, which made us hope for a favourable diagnosis. After a scan Toon Claes didn’t find any internal injuries; so the injuries he incurred in the Tour 2013 have been spared. The scan showed a bone bruise around the knee and an inflammation of the capsule, a rather logical diagnosis after crashing on a joint. There’s no infection on the cuts, which can further heal in the following days. Van den Broeck has to rest the next few days; on Monday he’ll have a new checkup and if he’s been given the green light he can slowly restart training that day. If that goes well Jurgen can do his normal trainings as of Wednesday and then participating in the Volta a Catalunya (which starts on Monday 24th of March) is a possibility. But let us see what happens in the next days.”

Jurgen Van den Broeck: “Relief is the correct word. After a crash like that one yesterday and last year’s crash in mind the past 24 hours all possible scenarios have gone through my head. I was a bit scared to go to the hospital. You think of what you could have done better or differently. Although the crash and the fact that I had to leave the race were already sufficient bad news, I think I am lucky. I had been able to ride the last kilometers towards the finish and the swelling wasn’t too bad, but I was still waiting in anxiety. If I could indeed start training on Wednesday, the loss of training isn’t too big. If you fall ill as a cyclist, that mostly has more impact on the condition. The past years I didn’t ride Tirreno either, but I would love to have proven that the efforts of the past weeks and months could lead to real results for the first time.”